
Countdown has much to celebrate as 2024 draws to a close. This year marked numerous milestones, including our largest annual meeting to date, followed by productive data dialogue in countries. We had several opportunities to advocate at the global level, published 33 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and our second cohort of Countdown fellows—10 junior researchers from across sub-Saharan Africa—began their independent research projects.
Additionally, there may have been more babies born than usual to people within the Countdown collaboration this year, though we are still collecting data to confirm!
Largest annual meeting to date
With the Global Financing Facility and other partners, Countdown hosted 260 researchers from 26 countries for a five-day analysis workshop in Rwanda in April.
Country teams used the chartbooks they produced during the workshop, plus other analyses conducted through project activities, to engage with policy and program planners in their countries.
Data uptake stories from:
Burkina Faso · Chad· DR Congo · Ethiopia · Ghana · Liberia · Somalia · Uganda · Zimbabwe
Advocacy in collaboration with PMNCH and other global partners
As part of our longstanding collaboration with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Agbessi Amouzou spoke at the annual accountability breakfast, and Cheikh Faye spoke at an event focused on the health workforce.
Fellowship program
While the second cohort of fellows began, the first cohort continued to share their results, presenting at the annual meeting and publishing their results; learn more
New Publications
Countdown researchers produced four journal supplements:
- An editorial and 11 original research articles papers in the Journal of Urban Health; read more.
- Results from the seven-country maternal newborn health exemplars study, published in BMJ Global Health and online; read more.
- The Health Systems & Policies data & analysis center is publishing a special series about the Global Financing Facility in Global Health Action. One is about community health in Francophone countries, and the other is about Burkina Faso; the remaining articles are coming in 2025.
- Two articles from a series on covid-19’s impact on health services were published on maternal health and immunization services in Bangladesh. More articles are forthcoming in 2025.
Another 11 papers were published:
- The effective coverage data & analysis published papers related to family planning, delivery and postnatal care, and modern contraceptive use in Ethiopia; learn more.
- Lessons learned from Ending Preventable Maternal Mortality indicator validation.
- Two analyses of child mortality at age 5-19 in Tanzania by Countdown fellow Sophia Kagoye: one on levels, trends and inequalities and one on causes of death.
- Other analyses related to family planning use: women’s empowerment and a five-country policy analysis.
- Multi-country analyses of immunization status and birth order , zero-dose children and the extended immunization cascade, and inequalities home-based vaccination records (currently in preprint but has been accepted by BMJ Global Health.)
- Hypertension and diabetes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Advocacy in collaboration with PMNCH and other global partners
As part of our longstanding collaboration with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Agbessi Amouzou spoke at the annual accountability breakfast, and Cheikh Faye spoke at an event focused on health workforce.
Looking Ahead to 2025
In 2025 we will have more to share, including the release of a Lancet report on progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, a webinar series from the health financing data & analysis center, and more news from the multi-country studies on immunization and maternal newborn health.